Your 2019 Academy Award Nominees

This year's Oscars ceremony will air on Sunday, February 24th. Below is a list of each film nominated for an award - many you can place on hold. What are your predictions for this year's big winners? 

• At Eternity's Gate - Best Actor (Willem Dafoe)

• Avengers: Infinity War - Best Visual Effects

• The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (Netflix Exclusive - Try our Roku devices!) (3)  - Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Costume Design, Best Original Song (When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings)

• Black Panther (7) - Best Picture, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, Best Original Score, Best Original Song (All the Stars), Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing

• BlackKklansman (6) - Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Adam Driver), Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Original Score

• Bohemian Rhapsody  (5) - Best Picture, Best Actor (Rami Malek), Best Editing, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing

• Border - Best Makeup and Hairstyling

• Can You Ever Forgive Me?(3)  - Best Actress (Melissa McCarthy), Best Supporting Actor (Richard E. Grant), Best Adapted Screenplay

• Capernaum - Best Foreign Language Film

• Christopher Robin - Best Visual Effects 

• Cold War (3) - Best Director, Best Foreign Language Film, Best Cinematography

• The Favourite (10) - Best Picture, Best Actress (Olivia Colman), Best Supporting Actress (Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz), Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Production Design, Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design 

• First Man (4) - Best Production Design, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing

• First Reformed - Best Original Screenplay

• Free Solo - Best Documentary

• Green Book (5) - Best Picture, Best Actor (Viggo Mortensen), Best Supporting Actor (Mahershala Ali), Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing

• Hale County, This Morning This Evening - Best Documentary

• If Beale Street Could Talk (3) - Best Supporting Actress (Regina King), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score

• Incredibles 2 - Best Animated Feature

• Isle of Dogs - Best Animated Feature, Best Original Score

• Mary Poppins Returns (3) - Best Costume Design, Best Original Score, Best Original Song (The Place Where Lost Things Go)

• Mary Queen of Scots (3) - Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Original Score

• Minding the Gap - Best Documentary

• Mirai - Best Animated Feature

• Never Look Away - Best Foreign Language Film, Best Cinematography

• Of Fathers and Sons - Best Documentary

• A Quiet Place - Bets Sound Editing

• Ralph Breaks the Internet - Best Animated Feature

• RBG - Best Documentary, Best Original Song (I Will Fight)

• Ready Player One -  Best Visual Effects 

• Roma (9) - Best Picture, Best Actress (Yalitza Aparicio), Best Supporting Actress (Marina de Tavira), Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Foreign Language Film, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing

• Shoplifters - Best Foreign Language Film

• Solo: A Star Wars Story - Best Visual Effects

• Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse - Best Animated Feature

• A Star is Born (8) - Best Picture, Best Actress (Lady Gaga), Best Actor (Bradley Cooper), Best Supporting Actor (Sam Elliott), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Original Song (Shallow), Best Sound Mixing

• Vice (8) - Best Picture, Best Actor (Christian Bale), Best Supporting Actress (Amy Adams), Best Supporting Actor (Sam Rockwell), Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Makeup and Hairstyling

• The Wife - Best Actress (Glenn Close)

Best Animated Short Films: Animal Behavior, Bao, Late Afternoon, One Small Step, Weekends

Best Documentary Short Subject: Black Sheep, End Game, Lifeboat, A Night At The Garden, Period. End of Sentence. 

Best Live Action Short Film: Detainment, Fauve, Marguerite, Mother, Skin

The Unfriendly Skies (download and go)

This morning I took the dog for an abbreviated walk as I opted to sleep in a bit more. Wow, was it cold, after such a warm December, it was a cold reminder of what winter in Chicago is typically like, frigid and the skies gray and almost unfriendly. I think even the dog noticed, as he picked up the pace. Here is a list of downloadable fiction with a reference to the skies above.

The Girl Who Fell from the Sky by Heidi Durrow The Orphan Sky by Ella Leya A Sky Full of Stars by Samantha Chase Under a Cloudless Sky by Chris Fabry Meet the Sky by McCall Hoyle Sky Between You and Me by Catherine Alene Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan

The 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction Shortlist

At the end of this year the American Library Association announced the six books shortlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medals. This is awarded for the previous year's best books written for adult readers and published in the U.S. The medals, established in 2012, guide adults in selecting quality reading material. The two medal winners, one for fiction and one for nonfiction, receive $5,000 each and are honored during an event at ALA's 2019 Annual Conference. The medals are made possible by a partial grant from the Carnegie Corporation as a testament to Andrew Carnegie who believed that books can change the world! The winners will be announced on January 27, 2019.
Take a look at the six finalists and decide which one would get your vote -


FICTION:
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
A novel set in 1980s Chicago and contemporary Paris follows the director of a Chicago art gallery and a woman looking for her estranged daughter in Paris who both struggle to come to terms with the ways AIDS has affected their lives.

There, There by Tommy Orange
A large cast of interwoven characters depicts the experience of Native Americans living in urban settings. Perfect for readers of character-driven fiction with a strong sense of place. -- Abby Johnson for LibraryReads.

Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
Unexpectedly chosen to be a family manservant, an 11-year-old Barbados sugar-plantation slave is initiated into a world of technology and dignity before a devastating betrayal propels him throughout the world in search of his true self.

NONFICTION:
Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America by Beth Macy
In a book that includes deeply human and unforgettable portraits of the families and first responders affected, the author takes readers into the epicenter of America's more than 20-year struggle with opioid addiction.

Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon
In this powerful and provocative memoir, genre-bending essayist and novelist Kiese Laymon explores what the weight of a lifetime of secrets, lies, and deception does to a black body, a black family, and a nation teetering on the brink of moral collapse.

The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border by Francisco Cantu
A former agent for the U.S. Border Patrol describes his upbringing as the son of a park ranger and grandson of a Mexican immigrant, who upon joining the Border Patrol encountered the violence and political rhetoric that overshadows life for both migrants and the police.

Reading Reflections 2018

The New Year is fast approaching and it's a perfect time to reflect on what I've read over the past year. It's been a great reading year for me! I've read and listened my way across the genres and for the first time in a long time a nonfiction book is my favorite read of the year, American Wolf: a true story of survival and obsession in the West by Nate Blakeslee. Here are a few of  my other good reads from 2018.  Maybe you'll find one that peaks your interest. What's your favorite book of 2018?

American Wolf: a true story of survival and obsession the West by Nate Blakeslee
An intimate account of the rise and rein of O-Six, the legendary Yellowstone wolf, describes, how after being hunted to near extinction by the 1920's, conservationists worked tirelessly to restore the species against a backdrop of debates specifically affecting the American West.

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Celestial and Roy are newly married with a bright future when Roy is convicted of a crime he did not commit. This is not a heroes vs. villain's tale with a neat resolution. It is a complex, muddled, and thought-provoking story about love, family, and the wide-reaching effects of incarceration.

There, There by Tommy Orange
A large cast of interlaced characters depicts the experience of Native Americans living in urban settings. Perfect for readers of character-driven fiction with a strong sense of place.

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
Leni and her dysfunctional family embark on a new way of life in Alaska's wilderness in the mid-1970's, hoping this is the solution for her troubled father. In Alaska, each member of the family is tested and when change comes to their community her father's anger threatens to divide the town. This is an exquisitely written novel, descriptive and engaging with well-developed characters and a very strong sense of place.

Carnegie's Maid by Marie Benedict
Charming, richly-detailed, biographical and historical fiction. In 1860s Pittsburgh, Clara, an Irish immigrant takes a job working as a maid for Andrew Carnegie, with whom she falls in love, and then goes missing.

Glenview Opera Lecture Series II

As we enter the year 2019, we are regaled with the stories, history, and music featuring the operas being presented at the Lyric Opera of Chicago by members of The Opera Lovers Lecture Corps.  Come join other opera lovers on Thursday evenings in the Multipurpose Room from
7:00 pm - 8:30 pm.

Elektra by Richard Strauss (January 24)
As a child, Elektra witnesses the murder of her father, King Agamemnon, by her mother, Queen Clyrtemnestra and her lover Aegisthus.  Elektra lives for the death of her mother at the hands of her brother Orestes.  But he has been killed and Elektra seeks her revenge herself.

La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi (February 14)
Violetta, a desirable Paris courtesan, is sought after by society's most important men, but she's wealthy and perfectly content with her carefree existence - until she meets Alfredo Germont.  Alfredo's father pushes them apart, and although they are reunited in the end, it is much too late.

Ariodante by George Frederic Handel (February 21)
Medieval Scotland.  Ginevra, daughter of the King, is in love and betrothed to Prince Ariodante.  She rejects the amorous advances of the duke of Albany, Polinesso, who then cruelly tricks Ariodante and Ginevra's father into believing that Ginevra is unfaithful.  Aridante attemps suicide and Ginevra is condemned, but after a challenge to a duel by Lucanio, Ariodante's brother, the dying Polinesso admits his plot and the lovers are reunited.

Best of 2018 Fiction

As we come to the end of 2018, we reflect on a year's worth of great fiction writing. There are many lists out there: NPR's Best Books of 2018, Best 10 Books of 2018 by the New York Times, Time Magazine Best Fiction Books 2018, to name a few. Here are some highlights:

The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani
When Myriam, a French-Moroccan lawyer, decides to return to work after having children, she and her husband look for the perfect nanny for their two young children. They never dreamed they would find Louise: a quiet, polite, devoted woman who sings to the children, cleans the family's chic apartment in Paris's upscale tenth arrondissement, stays late without complaint, and hosts enviable kiddie parties. But as the couple and the nanny become more dependent on one another, jealousy, resentment, and suspicions mount, shattering the idyllic tableau.

The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai

A novel set in 1980s Chicago and contemporary Paris follows the director of a Chicago art gallery and a woman looking for her estranged daughter in Paris who both struggle to come to terms with the ways AIDS has affected their lives.

There, There by Tommy Orange

Twelve Native Americans came to the Big Oakland Powwow for different reasons. Jacquie Red Feather is newly sober and trying to make it back to the family she left behind in shame. Dene Oxendene is pulling his life together after his uncle's death and has come to work the powwow and to honor his uncle's memory. Edwin Frank has come to find his true father. Bobby Big Medicine has come to drum the Grand Entry. Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield has come to watch her nephew Orvil Red Feather; Orvil has taught himself Indian dance through YouTube videos, and he has come to the powwow to dance in public for the very first time. Tony Loneman is a young Native American boy whose future seems destined to be as bleak as his past, and he has come to the Powwow with darker intentions--intentions that will destroy the lives of everyone in his path.

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin

It's 1969 in New York City's Lower East Side, and word has spread of the arrival of a mystical woman, a traveling psychic who claims to be able to tell anyone the day they will die. The Gold children--four adolescents on the cusp of self-awareness--sneak out to hear their fortunes. Their prophecies inform their next five decades. Golden boy Simon escapes to the West Coast, searching for love in '80s San Francisco; dreamy Klara becomes a Las Vegas magician, obsessed with blurring reality and fantasy; eldest son Daniel seeks security as an army doctor post-9/11, hoping to control fate; and bookish Varya throws herself into longevity research, where she tests the boundary between science and immortality. The Immortalists probes the line between destiny and choice, reality and illusion, this world and the next.

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

Celestial and Roy are newly married professionals leaning in to a bright future when Roy is convicted of a crime he did not commit. This is not a heroes vs. villains tale with a tidy resolution. It is a complicated, messy, moving, and thought-provoking story about love, family, and the wide-reaching effects of incarceration.

New and Noteworthy titles in Spanish

So I am pretty excited about some of our new titles in Spanish. Did you know that we welcome suggestions for Spanish titles to add to the collection? And we can search and solicit Spanish books from other libraries. Stop by the readers desk to make a request. Come browse the collection and take one or two home.

*Una novela criminal
by Jorge Volpi Escalante

Becoming: mi historia 
by Michelle Obama

Mis documentos 
by Alejandro Zambra

El objetivo
by David Baldacci

Casa de espías
by Daniel Silva

Pecho frío
by Jaime Bayly

La fruta del borrachero 
by Ingrid Rojas Contreras

Orgullo y prejuicio 
by Jane Austen

Los siete principios del camino de Santiago 
by Victor Prince

*2018 winner of the prestigious Alfaguara Prize for literature